The word · History
كَرْبَلَاء
Karbala
The plain in Iraq where Husayn and his household were killed on the tenth of Muharram, year 61.
Also written · Kerbala · Karbala battle · Battle of Karbala · Kerbela · Karbalaa · Waqiat Karbala · Ashura Karbala · Karballa · Karbala Iraq · Tragedy of Karbala
The meaning
What Karbala means in Islam
He had refused to pledge to Yazid and was travelling to Kufa when the army sent to intercept him cut him off from the Euphrates. Around seventy of his party were killed, including his family, and the survivors were taken to Damascus. Sunnis regard it as a grievous crime and grieve it without ritual observance, while Twelver Shia commemorate it every Muharram as a central act of devotion. Whatever a Muslim's school, the grandson of the Prophet was killed by people who called themselves Muslims.
Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- Husayn ibn AliThe Prophet's younger grandson, killed at Karbala in the sixty first year of the Hijrah.الحُسَيْنُ بْنُ عَلِيّ
- AshuraThe tenth of Muharram, a day the Prophet fasted for the deliverance of Musa from Pharaoh.عَاشُورَاء
- Banu UmayyahThe first dynasty of caliphs, ruling from Damascus for about ninety years after the Rashidun.بَنُو أُمَيَّة
- Ahl al-BaytThe Prophet's household, honoured by all Muslims, though the schools draw its boundary differently.أَهْلُ البَيْت
More from History
- Abu BakrThe Prophet's closest friend, his companion in the cave, and the first caliph.أَبُو بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيق
- Bilal ibn RabahAn enslaved Abyssinian tortured for his faith, freed by Abu Bakr, and the first to call the adhan.بِلَالُ بْنُ رَبَاح
- Hijrah to AbyssiniaThe first migration, when persecuted Muslims fled Makkah to a Christian king in Abyssinia.الهِجْرَةُ إِلَى الحَبَشَة
- Isra and Mi'rajThe night the Prophet was taken to Jerusalem and then raised through the heavens.الإِسْرَاءُ وَالمِعْرَاج
- MadinahThe oasis city that took the Prophet in, where he governed, died and is buried.المَدِينَة
- Sahifat al-MadinahThe written charter the Prophet drew up on reaching Madinah, binding its tribes into one body.صَحِيفَةُ المَدِينَة